30 Memories: Shinichi and Ran
by Jeva
Summary: Two people torn apart by events beyond their control...whether or not they are together at the end, they will always have their memories... [Fifty Fifty: There was a fifty percent chance that he would answer wrong.]
1. Tadaima

**Fandom:** Detective Conan  
**Title:** Tadaima  
**Author:** Jeva  
**Theme:** #4 - Lost  
**Pairing:** Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warnings:** Fluff. ...yes, fluff requires a warning!  
**Disclaimer:** All things Detective Conan belong to one, Aoyama Gosho. I don't claim to have created any of these characters...just the tormenting situations I put them in. :D  
**Summary:** _He was home._

* * *

He was home. 

Funny how such a simple realization could make him smile so serenely. A simple thought that made him look to the one who'd been his Northern Star the whole time he was lost. She was resting comfortably on his pillow, having migrated to that side of the bed during the time he'd gotten up to watch the sun rise.

The first time he'd seen such a thing in his own body in years.

It was laughable, really. How wide-eyed he looked around the place since returning to his true age and size. The old Kudo Shinichi definitely wouldn't have behaved in such a way.

But...so many years as a child again...fighting for his and others' lives while keeping his identity a secret had done a lot to his present mind-set. He knew now the importance of each day...being able to spend them with the ones he loved.

Especially his one beacon of hope, who mumbled his name in her sleep.

He smiled down at her before bending down to kiss her on the forehead. Seeming content with that, she went quiet and slept on peacefully.

Shinichi knelt on the floor beside he bed, content himself to just watching her sleep. Yes, it truly was a miracle, really...able to come home--truly come home with no time limits and nothing to hold him back...

Except for Mouri Ran's temper, he recalled with a small, quiet laugh as he reached out to brush the hair from her closed eyes. That temper was going to get him in a lot of trouble in the future, he knew, but for now, it had helped to tired Ran out before they had started to really talk.

Withdrawing his hand again, Shinichi frowned as he remembered going over almost every detail of his double-life with Ran. He remembered her laughter, her anger, her frustration at being told things that she felt she should have realized. Not that it was her fault. Shinichi had just gotten lucky a few times.

But worst of all, he remembered her tears and how she'd started to cry near the end of his tale, clinging to him as if she thought he'd disappear before her very eyes--as he had done so many time before. Unable to simply reassure her, because he knew better than to say he'd always be there...things changed far too fast to keep _that_ promise, he'd held her until her tears ran dry. And that was only just as she started to drift off to sleep.

He stayed with her the entire night. Just holding her in a way he'd longed to do for so long. In his own arms...in a way to let Ran know that he didn't want to leave...he held her as she slept.

Now it was well into late-morning, and Shinichi was starting to feel the effects of going without sleep when he'd just returned to normal. He stifled a yawn and stubbornly kept his eyes open and trained on Ran's face, waiting for her to wake up.

They still had a lot to talk about--dealing with the past, compromising issues in the present...planning for the future, maybe.

But right then, Shinichi just wanted to tell her one thing.

So he waited patiently, almost drifting off a couple of times before snapping awake again. It wasn't until around either that Ran started to shift around again, hr hands skimming across the bed's surface, searching, before her eyes popped open in a shocked and frightened manner--calming immediately when she saw his sleepily smiling face.

Her hand reached out for his, and he took it, his eyes not leaving hers.

"Shinichi..." she said quietly in a satisfied manner that made him smile more.

He squeezed her hand before whispering back softly, "I'm home."

She paused only for a moment as her eyes welled with tears--happy ones, this time. She took in a deep breath before scooting herself closer to him so that her other hand could brush against his cheek in a manner that showed she was still almost afraid it was all a dream.

But after that moment, her palm lay against his cheek, and as he closed his eyes to savor that touch, she responded, voice choked with those tears, "Welcome home, Shinichi..."

* * *

_Author's Notes: _...I feel cheesy 

...now I'll have to write another deathfic to get the cheese offa me!

...but yes...warm fuzzies ♥

Okay, anyway...blaming Candyland for getting me addicted to these LJ Theme Challenges...so yeah...yayness...I have yet another fic thing I may never finish. Ya'll love me for it, right? -awkward smile-


	2. Look At This Photograph

**Fandom:** Detective Conan  
**Title:** Look At This Photograph  
**Author:** Jeva  
**Theme:** #12 - Is it you?  
**Pairing:** Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warnings:** Cliche and Cheesiness...yes, those deserve a warning, too!  
**Disclaimer:** All things Detective Conan belong to one, Aoyama Gosho. I don't claim to have created any of these characters...just the tormenting situations I put them in. :D  
**Summary:** _That idea was in her head again._

* * *

Mouri Ran laughed a bit. "Mou...you shouldn't say things like that! It's bad luck!"

"Maybe," an amused voice responded from the the phone she had pinned between her shoulder and ear as she continued to dig through a messy storage closet that obviously hadn't been tidied up in...well, maybe _ever_. "But I still stick to what I said." There was a pause before the young male voice then asked, "What are you doing anyway? You sound like you're cleaning out your father's office again."

Ran sighed as she put another storage box aside. "Might as well be," she said as she pulled out another stack of papers--more files to go into the filing cabinets in the agency downstairs. "Honestly...I hope you're not this messy with your files, Shinichi, because this is just getting ridiculous! I'm finding ten year old files sitting in a closet!"

The teenaged detective Kudo Shinichi laughed at that. "Typical," he said with a bit of a snicker. "And to be honest, I tend to only keep small notes all in one place. I haven't really had a chance to really file away anything, so I've been putting my memory recall to good use."

Ran muttered crossly about genius detectives and their abilities while Shinichi snickered again. She only paused when she discovered a binder-like object wedged between a box and the wall in the closet. "Eh? What's this?" she asked herself, forgetting that she was still on the phone.

"What's what?" Shinichi asked, curious as well.

"Hold on for a second." Hearing a squawk of protest forming on the other end of the phone, Ran pulled the phone from its perch and placed it on the floor as she then tried to force the binder from its location. "Come on..." she said, poking her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she wiggled and pulled at the stubborn object--

And nearly fell backward onto the ground when it came loose and then free.

"Got it!" she cried happily, before snatching up the phone and placing it back where it was supposed to be as she brushed the dust off with a rag. "Ne, Shinichi, I think it's an old photo album!"

"Hoooo?" came the almost-bored, almost-curious response. "I'm almost scared to ask what kinds of pictures it has in there."

"Oh, stop being so mean," Ran scolded him, finding herself smiling at that because she hadn't been able just jokingly talk with Shinichi in a while. It was a good thing that he still called. She was afraid to think what things would have been like if she didn't at least that one piece of him that he was able to give--his voice on the telephone. "And anyway, I dunno what's in it yet because I haven't looked--"

"Well, open it and see what it is already," Shinichi said, voice going into its bored mode.

She scowled a bit, wishing she could just thwack the boy like she used to. "Would you just hold on a second? It's _filthy_ and--" Her words froze in her throat as she opened the old binder's cover.

Then she squealed.

"What?" Shinichi asked, now sounding more than just a bit curious. "What is it? Wedding pictures? Your mom and dad actually together?"

"It's us!" Ran said with excitement as she eagerly looked over page after page of pictures from their childhood. "It's pictures of us playing together from ten years ago!"

"...ten years ago?" the detective asked with a bit of hesitance that Ran ignored in favor for smiling widely at a picture of her being pushed on a swing by a little Shinichi, would was looking determined to do a good job of trying to get her over the bars--even though he had told her _several_ times that it was impossible.

"You were so _cute_ as a kid, Shinichi," she said sincerely before adding with some irony, "I wonder what happened..."

"Ah ha ha..." Shinichi replied dully, not at all amused. "And I could say the same about you. If I remember correctly, you used to be a nice little girl who behaved and allowed her best friend to chase of the bullies rather than the big, scary girl that hits her own best friend because he accidentally caught a glimpse up your skirt--"

"_Shinichi!_" Ran shouted, face going red.

He snickered back at her, shameless.

"Mou..." she muttered to herself before blinking in surprise at a photo in the album. Her brow furrowed as she studied the image for a little longer before asking, "Ne, Shinichi?"

"Hm?"

"...are you and Agasa-hakase related?" That idea was in her head again. That ridiculous, impossible idea that had already been proven to be false _several_ times.

...but still...she had to make sure.

"What kind of question is that?" Shinichi demanded with a small bit of feigned annoyance. "I have no idea...I don't really keep track of things like that--why are you asking anyway?"

Ran took a deep breath before tapping a finger on the picture in front of her, as if she was showing it to him even though he very well couldn't see it over the phone. "I was just wondering...because Conan-kun is a relative of his and...well...I found this picture of you with my mom's glasses that I made you were, and...well..."

Shinichi was silent for a moment.

A moment just a bit too long for her tastes. "Shinichi?"

"Ahhh, sorry," he answered almost immediately. "I was looking over something--are you saying that you think Conan-kun and I are related?"

Ran bit her lip as she stared at the picture. "Well...he _does_ look a _lot_ like you..." She laughed a bit, adding with some irony, "If I didn't know that you were 17 and Conan-kun was 7, I'd suspect he was your son or something!"

"...what kind of things are you saying now?" Shinichi demanded while she tried to stifle a laugh. "Oi! When would I have the time to have a son? That just doesn't--...that's not funny, Ran."

"Sorry," she apologized, though not with as much sincerity that the boy would have liked. "Anyway...so you don't know if Conan-kun and you are related?"

"No..." the detective said slowly. "It's _possible_, though. Or it could be one of those freaky things that happens--you know...two perfect strangers looking almost exactly alike? It's happened before, so I guess it's not _that_ freaky..."

Ran frowned a bit. Well...yes, that _was_ true, but somehow she still couldn't make herself believe in that possibility. For some reason, she just couldn't seem to keep it out of her mind that Conan was more than who he said he was and Shinichi knew something about Conan that he wasn't telling her.

But why would either of them hide something like that from her?

"...ne, Shinichi?" she asked, voice softer than before.

"Nnnm?" was the tired, almost sleepy response. Shinichi always seemed to be tired whenever they had their phone conversations lately. Maybe those cases were just as hard on him by not allowing him to come home as they were for her...

But even though she wanted to ask him a bit more about his shared similarities with the strange little boy that was now living with her, almost as the little brother she never had, Ran hesitated. "If...if there was something wrong with you..." she started slowly, not really knowing how to ask this question. "Or...if you _knew_ something that I didn't and that could...affect me...would you keep it from me?"

Again, there was a moment of silence.

"Honestly?" Shinichi asked, tone serious.

Ran hesitated for a moment. "Ah...y-yes."

A sigh came from the other teenager. "Well..." he began slowly. "I guess it would depend, wouldn't it? On what that thing was...about what it could do if you knew..." There was a small pause before Shinichi then asked quietly, "Would it be such a bad thing if I had to keep a secret from you if it meant keeping you safe?"

"Shinichi?" Ran asked, unnerved by the way he seemed to be asking that question for more than hypothetical reasons.

"Ahh," the boy stammered before continuing on, his voice brightening cheerfully, "But really. If you were thinking that what I said earlier was bad luck, then your talking about those sorts of things is _extremely_ bad luck. Jeez, Ran, do you want to jinx things?"

She bit her lower lip to keep from calling him on his change of topics, knowing that she also hadn't answer his question. After a moment, she blew her own sigh and responded, "Idiot, you're the one that's run off and is causing trouble in places I don't even know!"

"Ha, you might be right," Shinichi said cheekily. "So what pictures are in that photo album, and should I be embarrassed by them?"

Ran smiled, almost glad to have a chance to bury the thoughts and awkward moment that had passed between them as she continued to describe each picture to him, wanting him to see the images himself but not able to show him. Even though he wasn't there and she couldn't see him, they would always have those memories to keep them together, able to visualize times before when they could laugh and smile at one another without any distance separating them.

That thought--that idea would come to haunt her later on, it always did. But for now, Ran was satisfied just reliving past moments with the one that she loved most.

* * *

_Author's Note:_ All of this cheesiness and fluff and cliches are making me sick...actually, no. Cliches are okay--I'm a cliche whore, after all, but still...blehhhh. 


	3. Fifty Fifty

**Fandom:** Detective Conan  
**Title:** Fifty-Fifty  
**Author:** Jeva  
**Theme:** #17 - Revenge  
**Pairing:** Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Warnings:** ...impure thoughts :D  
**Disclaimer:** All things Detective Conan belong to one, Aoyama Gosho. I don't claim to have created any of these characters...just the tormenting situations I put them in. :D  
**Summary:** There was a fifty percent chance that he would answer wrong.

* * *

She was smiling sweetly at him. 

...he was doomed.

"Shinichi," she said, her voice lilting and musical--another warning sign that meant he was a dead man. "What do you think about this dress?"

The great detective Kudo Shinichi, who had survived a criminal syndicate whose reach went further than ever thought possible and who had just recently recovered from the horrible transformation back into his real, adult form, was left without a clue of what to say. It was a common dilemma faced by men world wide, but one would think that being a detective of such caliber would at least gift him with the knowledge of which answer was the right answer.

On the one hand, if he told her exactly what he thought--that the dress she was sporting now was hugging tightly to her figure, leaving almost nothing to the imagination, except for what was covered, but even then the low cut front and backless back and slit in the skirt that went right up to her thigh...

...it was best not to even say the words "hot" and maybe "sexy" to Mouri Ran...especially since she had karate skills that would take him apart bit by bit as she beat him to death.

...then again, there was the problem that if he was nonchalant about it, she could get really mad, too. She was obviously wanting _some_ sort of reaction--why else would she do this so teasingly? It was almost cruel really--then again, he might actually deserve the treatment seeing how she now knew about his experience as Conan...

Past experiences. That was it. Maybe if he thought about it for a while, he could think of the right answer before she could realize he was staring at her _that_ way.

He quickly ran through the memories of times he was Conan and Ran and Sonoko had unwittingly dragged him through the lingerie aisle where Sonoko would pull out various _revealing_ and...lacy things, making Ran's face go _red_ as she demanded who she would wear those sorts of things for.

...so...would that mean that she _wasn't_ doing this to...impress him?

...because if she _was_, Shinichi couldn't think of how to respond to that sort of thing. Instead, his mind tilted to the side as it rolled down that gutter that is so often referred to when such thoughts like '_What is she wearing _under _that thing--it's so tight--oh god, thisisnotfairandnotgood--!_' ran through one's mind.

"Shinichi?"

He sat up straight, turning his eyes back up to her face, his own face burning with embarrassment at being caught. "Y-yeah?" he managed to nervously get out.

He leaned back in the seat as she leaned in close, a smile on her face. "You were looking, weren't you?"

"N-no!" he immediately denied out of habit, hands flailing between them.

Ran looked vaguely disappointed as she stood up straight again. "So you don't like it?" she asked, looking down to the simmering red material with a sad frown.

Shinichi blanched.

Wrong answer.

"N-no! That's not it!" he exclaimed, standing up from his seat, before freezing, realizing he was getting odd looks from other shoppers in the store. He could have sworn that the women were giving him evil looks, somehow knowing that he was upsetting one of their own by his thoughtless words. "I-I _do_ like it--it...um..."

He trailed off as his eyes got minds of their own and drifted from one part of Ran to the other.

...it wasn't _fair._

Women were _cruel_ in their acts of revenge...

He snapped his eyes back to meet hers, which were watching him with some amusement and some hesitation of her own. A question lied between them. And Shinichi took a deep breath and put his hands on her arms, rubbing them lightly before letting them drift down to catch her own hands.

Now smiling because he was hoping he wouldn't get this answer wrong _and_ because he had hold of her hands which cut down potential harm from her about 10, he answered honestly, but simply, "You look beautiful, Ran."

And the smile she gave him let him know.

Trial and error--he managed to get the right answer.

And was rewarded with a small, chaste kiss.

...maybe this sort of thing wasn't so bad, after all.

* * *

_Author's Notes:_ ...okay, I'm running out of things to say here. But yeah...'nother theme done--3 down...27 to go -sweatdrops- 


	4. A Debt Paid

**Fandom:** Detective Conan  
**Title:** A Debt Paid  
**Author:** Jeva  
**Theme:** #7 - I promise I'll be back...  
**Pairing:** Kudo Shinichi/Mouri Ran, Hattori Heiji, Inspector Megure, Takagi-keiji  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Warnings:** Blood. Lol.  
**Disclaimer:** All things Detective Conan belong to one, Aoyama Gosho. I don't claim to have created any of these characters...just the tormenting situations I put them in. :D  
**Summary: **A promise made is a debt unpaid. - Robert Service.

* * *

-

It all started with a pounding on the door.

Ran was alarmed at the insistent sound and quickly rushed to the door and was in the process of grabbing for the knob when she heard Hattori Heiji's voice shout in desperation, "Neesan! Open the door!"

She did so, throwing it wide open only to put her hands to her face, struggling to keep back a scream when she saw the sight before her. "Shinichi!" she exclaimed, instead, staring in horror at the blood that covered both the Kansai detective and the unconscious boy on his back.

Heiji quickly shouted as he pushed into the room, "Dun just stand there! Get First Aid!"

For a moment, Ran stayed frozen, not able to get her mind to wrap around what she was seeing. It wasn't until she noticed that the injured detective wasn't, in fact, completely unconscious that she was able to move, quickly running for the emergency kit they always kept for times such as these. They happened far too frequently for any of their tastes.

While she unceremoniously tossed things aside--she was really going to have to tell her father _again_ how important it was that the First Aid kit was within immediate reach--Ran could hear Heiji hastily lower Shinichi on one of the couches. The whole time, the dark-skinned boy was talking to his injured friend as if it were a normal day and was trying not to let the edge of panic that was in his voice to overcome his words. He had to keep Shinichi calm or else more damage could be done.

Ran was immensely relieved when she finally located the kit and gathered it and an armful of towels before rushing over to the pair.

Heiji immediately snatched the kit from her hands and dug through it, muttering to himself the whole while. Ran used this time to look Shinichi over, having a towel ready to begin the staunching of bloodflow--only to see that there was far too much blood to tell where the wound was located. "Heiji!" she cried out, gaining his attention.

"Damn..." he hissed under his breath, realizing the dilemma and setting the kit aside as if were entirely useless--which for this situation, it probably was. The Kansai detective moved closer to the pale boy on the couch, wiping a hand across his brow, leaving a dark smudge. His hands were covered in blood and shaking beyond control. "He hasn't been able ta respond since I got ta him. Wasn't able ta tell me where he was shot--"

"He was shot?" Ran asked with alarm, clutching the towels in her hands as she watched her childhood friend pant for breath as his body shook from the pain. A cold sweat was on his pale brow as well.

Heiji didn't explain but started to reach out toward Shinichi in an attempt to begin the search for the wound. He immediately withdrew them, however, when Shinichi's eyes shot open wide, glazed with pain. A strangled noise escaped him, and his hand shot toward his chest as he continued to heave fast and shallow breaths that didn't seem to give him enough air.

"Shinichi!" Ran shouted, not knowing what to do but dropping down on her knees next to the couch like Heiji.

"Oi, Kudo! Can ya hear me?" Heiji said loudly, leaning in closer when the boy's head turned in their direction.

Shinichi grimaced, eyes squeezing tightly shut as he forced himself to nod.

The other boy continued in a loud voice to be sure that the injured one could hear him clearly, "We need ta know the location of the wound--there's too much blood ta tell any difference and searchin' for it will take too much time. Ya have ta tell us where it is before ya pass out again. Is it your chest?"

Ran watched with stunned amazement as Shinichi's lips twisted into a chilling sort of smile before he slowly shook his head. Then, he whispered so quietly between the pants for breath that both Ran and Heiji almost missed it, "Upper...right...side..."

Without waiting another moment, Heiji dove for the First Aid kit again, digging around within it for a moment before pulling out a pair of scissors. He then quickly made work of the shirt Shinichi was wearing, cutting it open and revealing fresh, pouring blood. Tightly, Heiji snapped, "Neesan, the towels!"

Ran started violently and quickly did as he said, separating one towel from the others and wiping away as much blood as she could before she was able to see the actual wound and apply pressure to it with the towel quickly soaking up the blood.

A strangled noise came from Shinichi, making Ran almost jerk back in response, but she stayed where she was, her arms shaking with the tension her muscles were feeling. She leaned hard against him, pressing down on the wound, hoping it would be enough and the blood would stop flowing soon.

She was so focused on her task that she completely missed what Heiji was saying to Shinichi, missed the look of alarm crossing the detective's face. It was only when he leapt to his feet and ran for the phone that she looked up from her work. "H-Heiji?" she asked, voice unable to keep steady as she saw the look on his face as he quickly dialed a familiar number.

He looked between Shinichi and Ran as he put the phone to his ear, eyes wide. "He can't breathe," he said quickly before turning away from Ran's terrified look and exclaiming into the phone, "Megure-keibu! There's an emergency at the Mouri Agency--get here as fast as ya can with people ya know ya can trust!"

Without waiting for a reponse, Heiji made as if to hang up, only to reconsider and put the phone back to his ear. "Never mind what I just said! Just get yourself and Takagi-keiji over here as fast as ya can with a stretcher--somethin' ta carry someone in--and keep in mind the most discreet hospital that ya can think of! We have ta go there _now!_"

Ran looked away from the scene as soon as Heiji hung up the phone. She looked, instead, to the wound and the towel that was soaked with blood. She reached for a fresh towel only to see with some amount of horror as she let up the pressure that the blow was still flowing as strongly as it had before she had started this. "Heiji!" she cried out, bringing him immediately to her side while she switched out the towels. "It's not slowing! It's not stopping! It's getting worse!"

Harsh curses came the detective behind her before he said furiously, "His blood's too thin. It's not clottin'. He's gonna bleed ta death at this rate--where the hell are those damn cops!"

Ran was shakened by the vehemency in Heiji's voice but was most thrown off balance by the realization that he was right in saying that Shinichi would die if they didn't get him to help quickly. Not really wanting to, but not able to keep herself calm and from saying anything useless, she shouted at the dark-skinned boy, "Why didn't you take him straight to the hospital!"

"It's a little more complicated than all that!" Heiji shouted back, seeming to also be in the same state of panic that she was in. Heatedly, he continued, "I could only get so far with a bleedin' person ridin' with me on my motorcycle, and your place was closer than the hospital anyway! Plus, without police protection, the guys who did this ta Kudo will just try ta get him while he gets worked on at the hospital, and then what would the point be!"

She tried to keep her anger first and forefront, but it was too difficult. She knew and understood why Heiji did what he'd done. She knew that it was beyond arguing the point. Still, the blood was continuing to flow and wasn't stopping or slowing no matter how much pressure or how many towels she used against it and Shinichi was becoming paler and paler by the second--

She wasn't at all surprised to feel the tears falling from her eyes.

Before Heiji could say anything to try to comfort her, sirens wailed in the background and he blew a slight sigh of relief. "Stay here with him," he told Ran shortly, turning and running back out the door and down the stairs to catch the two members of the police force as soon as they got out of the car.

Ran stayed with Shinichi the whole while, trying to keep the blood from flowing and crying when the third towel brought the same results the previous two had.

It wasn't stopping.

-

-

Takagi had been shocked when Megure-keibu had shouted for him in the police station. He'd tried to get an explanation for why his presence was required but the inspector was already out the door and moving quickly for his car in the parking garage. It wasn't until they were both in the car and speeding down the road, sirens blaring, that he'd gotten at least some of the explaining.

"There's an emergency at the Mouri Agency," the inspector said tightly. Takagi knew that Megure was closer to the Mouris than anyone else in the force and so, the police detective stayed quiet as he listened. "Hattori was the one who called, shouting that we have to get down there as soon as possible."

His eyes widened at that. "Hattori-kun? What's he doing all the way here in Tokyo? Aren't there tests taking place today?" he asked with some bewilderment.

Megure-keibu didn't answer him and, instead, asked, "What's the most discreet hospital we know, Takagi?"

He felt a chill run down his spine. "The Memorial Hospital, probably. If we get the right doctor, they'll listen to what we have to say," he answered slowly, feeling sickened when he saw the inspector nod to himself.

"Good," the older man said before they went silent.

Takagi couldn't keep quiet for long, a nagging feeling in the back of his mind prompting him to ask, "Keibu...who was injured?"

Megure's hands tightened on the steering wheel as he stared out to the road before them, seeing the Agency not two building away, a figure covered in blood running out into the street. "We're about to find out," he said lowly before quickly pulling to a stop next to the sidewalk where Hattori Heiji ran up to meet them, obviously winded and more desperate than he'd even been before.

"Get the stretcher," the teenaged detective said quickly, out of breath but unable to keep silent any longer. "The bleedin's not stoppin'. We need ta get him ta a hospital right now."

Takagi quickly obeyed the command while Megure talked lowly with the Kansai detective. The polive investigator had just gotten the stretcher from the back of the car when the inspector barked out, "Move it, Takagi! We've got to hurry!"

"Y-yes, sir!" he shouted back, racing after Hattori and Megure-keibu as they quickly went up the stairs to the Mouri residence.

Takagi froze when he reached the doorway, seeing the pale, bloodied form lying on the couch which Mouri Ran was knelt next to, tears rapidly falling from her eyes as her arms shook from the pressure she was putting on the wound. It took the young man a moment to realize whose pale face it was that turned to look blurrily toward Hattori and Megure as they approached.

"Kudo Shinichi..." Takagi said to himself with some surprise, having not seen the teenaged detective since the murder in that restaurant some months before.

-

-

It was bad. Worse than what he'd been hoping, praying for it to be. Of course he'd known that there would be a possibility of this happening--blood too thin to properly congeal and then clot, stemming the blood-flow. It was only natural when a person went from the size of a child to the size of an adult. Things like that weren't supposed to happen for this very reason.

The strain on Kudo's heart from having to work with the amount of blood meant for a 7-year-old rather than a 17-year-old...that scary little girl Haibara Ai had told him horror stories of some of the lab animals she had worked with while trying to find the antidote.

Even with all of the warnings, however, Hattori Heiji never expected things to turn out like this. As he watched Megure-keibu and Takagi-keiji quickly transfer Kudo to the stretcher, Mouri Ran never leaving her childhood friend's side even as the last towel she had was quickly becoming as soaked as the others, Heiji couldn't help but to think how close this was going to be...if Kudo lived.

He mentally shook his head as he physically clenched his fists and followed after the police who rushed out the door and to the vehicle below. This wasn't the time to be doubting whether or not Kudo would survive or not, he scolded himself. Get Kudo to the hospital--that's all he could do for now.

It seemed that was all he was able to do, even when he was covered in the other detective's blood, even though he'd been the one to find him there in that place, trapped, suffering from a forced transformation back to his real form by some means much crueler than the shrunken scientist's...bleeding without any end because nothing seemed to stop it.

Quickly, he shouted as the police loaded the injured boy in the back, Ran quickly following, ignoring any bystanders who were stopping to watch the scene with puzzlement and maybe horror, "I'll follow you on my bike! Get ta that hospital ya thought of as fast as ya can!"

A quick nod from Megure-keibu, and the two officers loaded up, closed their doors, and immediately started the car and sped off.

Heiji wasted no time, grabbing his helmet from where he'd left it on the bike and jamming it on his head. Hopping on to his bike, he quickly turned the key and revved the engine enough so all that he had to do was kick at the stand and he was racing behind the flashing blue and red of the other vehicle.

During this short moment of time between the Mouri residence and the hospital, nothing would come to mind except for the events of the past few days. Almost agonizingly slow to him, Heiji remembered the phone call he'd gotten from Ran two days ago, mentioning that Edogawa Conan had left to visit his parents--or some cheap excuse like that. While Ran wouldn't have known any better, Heiji had known there was something wrong with this picture.

Kudo wouldn't leave Ran without telling anybody about it first. And he certainly wouldn't let "Conan's mother" be the one to tell Ran. It had had a foul stench, the whole situation. So despite the fact that he'd desperately needed to study for his exams, he'd abandoned everything to investigate. He'd questioned everyone who knew about Kudo's situation as well as everyone who didn't.

Of course, it would be the kids who were the most helpful. No one ever seemed to pay attention to kids, Kudo had pointed out to him a number of times with an evil smug grin on his 10-year-younger face. The Detective Boys had told him all that they knew about Conan-kun leaving with his mother--who looked a bit different from how she had looked before, from what Ayumi had said Conan had said.

"He only managed to say it once," the young Mitsuhiko had said in a subdued manner. "He told us to tell someone what was happening and to get help right away. We tried, but no one would listen because Ran-neechan said that she'd gotten a phone call from Conan's mother so..."

Heiji could have punched any of the people who'd refused to listen to these kids who'd been known to be with Edogawa Conan and solve numerous crimes together.

While on the motorcycle, speeding to the hospital, he loosened his hold on the handlebars, forcing himself to remain calm.

It wasn't anyone's fault, he told himself silently. They couldn't have known. Megure-keibu and the others had been away finishing up some huge scandal that had been uncovered by the precocious protege of the famous Mouri Kogoro just the week before. No one could have gotten there quickly enough, and Heiji had only managed to uncover something strange because he knew the whole story of who Edogawa Conan really was.

And so he'd managed to find the place where Kudo had been taken through a series of fortunate events that were enough to make Heiji believe that it was some sort of miraculous blessing of a sort--if he hadn't discovered what lay inside that building where he'd eventually found Kudo, ill and bleeding fiercely for who knew how long.

Bodies. Bodies lay heaped on top of more and more bodies. It was all he could do to keep himself from turning tail and running out of the room to vomit from the stench of old blood and decay. That rotten smell which surely must have been much worse for Kudo who had been trapped there, unable to struggle with the pain that was wracking his body.

As soon as Heiji had found Kudo, huddled against one wall, arms wrapped around himself as he shivered and panted, sweat running down his pale brow and into his closed eyes, he'd realized what those bodies were doing there.

Just like Kudo, there had been other people used as the lab rat for that particular brand of poison. And of course, Kudo couldn't have been the only survivor. He'd just been the only one that hadn't been recovered--wasn't that what Haibara had said? The other 'bodies' were found. They'd been accounted for.

But what if they'd only been accounted for because they'd either been killed or someone thought it interesting enough to work more on the apotoxin and it's components that could kill others while reducing the rest to ten years younger than they'd been? What would they do with those people? Would they actually go as far as to also follow Haibara's path and try to develope a cure for whatever reason they thought it best to come up with one?

Hundreds of different possibilities crashed through his mind, but all of them pointed to one thing.

Those bodies were leftovers from whatever experiment that'd been conducted on Kudo. It was the only explanation. There wasn't a child in the room--not even Kudo, who'd been Edogawa Conan for so long. Kudo was his normal self now, but obviously in more pain and agony than any of Haibara's temporary cures had been.

It was because of this that it took Heiji a long while to get Kudo's attention on him and keep him focused on his voice as he told him that he was there and was going to get him to someone who could help. It was only when he'd gotten one of Kudo's trembling arms around his shoulders that he'd finally seen what Kudo had been trying to stop, to protect by staying in as small of a ball as he could.

There had been no way of knowing how long he'd been laying there, bleeding to death, but it was obviously a wound caused by a bullet. Heiji could see the glint of golden metal of the shell casing somewhere in the dark, along the dark floor slick with blood.

So he'd worked as fast as he could and got Kudo out of there, onto his bike, and to the Mouri Agency--which had only been a mere five minutes away at the speed he'd gone.

All of this and more ran through the Kansai detective's mind during the supposedly short rush to the hospital. In fact, once he'd realized where his mind had slipped again, he saw that Megure had already pulled into the ER entrance and was now jumping out of his car and barking orders to harried nurses and doctors who seemed to come out of nowhere.

Heiji pulled up beside the parked car, lights still flashing, just in time to hear a distressed voice call for her long-lost friend as he was quickly hustled inside, followed by Megure-keibu who continued to repeat again and again that no information on this particular patient was to be released to the public, nor to anyone outside of this ER team. Takagi-keiji was right behind Megure, ready to talk with the people sitting within the hospital who were bound to see some sight or another.

Kicking his stand down, Heiji abandoned his motorcycle and ran up to catch up with Ran who was following after the large group, shouting how long she'd tried to stem the bleeding when someone had shouted that Kudo's pulse was very weak. Even before reaching the actual ER room and discovering all that was wrong with Kudo, the doctors and nurses were already looking panicked and passed whatever calm manner medical practicioners tend to have.

They were now shouting that they needed blood for him, STAT.

One younger looking doctor looked horrified when told Kudo's bloodtype. Apparently, they were short in supply of that specific type and weren't able to give him enough to keep him from completely bleeding to death there on the operation table.

"Me!" Ran shouted over the cacophony, tears flooding down her cheeks as her hands clutched the blood-soaked towel she hadn't been able to let go of. A couple of doctors spare her some attention while the rest continued to move Kudo on down the corridor and out of sight. The dreadful silence that came with the departure of the medical team was almost deafening until Ran explained her, "I'm a match for him! Take as much blood as you need just...just don't let Shinichi die! Please!"

Heiji could only stand beside her, numbly looking to her in a sort of awed fascination. He'd heard about the time when Conan had been shot and Ran had made a similar exclamation, but that time without knowing if it was really true or not--just going on a hunch and a feeling. It had been the whole reason why Kudo had taken that first antidote of Haibara's...

The Kansai detective started again when he felt the sleeve of his shirt being pulled at, looking down and seeing Ran's hand silently asking for strength and support even though both her hand and his shirt were covered in Kudo's blood. "Please," she said again, quieter this time, trying to fight back the tears but ultimately failing, "Save Shinichi."

-

-

It had been years since he'd tried smoking, since he'd discovered first hand that it was not the thing for him. Right then, around midnight in some hospital that would have seemed suspiciously quiet if he hadn't known he'd caused the silence to reign, Megure could have sworn he'd give anything if Mouri-kun would just walk in and offer him a cigarette.

It had been a long night. What with the phone call from Hattori-kun and then the flight from the Mouri Agency and then all the way to the hospital...all for the sake of saving the life of a boy who was one of Japan's finest minds and best detectives.

Kudo Shinichi, Megure mused to himself as he looked into his cup of cold coffee--something Takagi had gotten up to get over an hour ago when Hattori-kun had started to involuntarily shut his eyes only to go alert again. It was somehow less of a shock than it should have been, really. That Kudo-kun was in this sort of condition.

Perhaps it was because, even though he'd told himself otherwise hundreds of times, he'd realized somewhere along the way that Kudo-kun had gotten involved with something that had gotten out of his control. A frightening thought, something able to defeat such a quick and analytical mind such as Kudo-kun's. Still, he was a boy. Just a boy. For someone to do this to him...even if he were a detective, what Hattori-kun had managed to tell him was enough to make him sick to the stomach.

Hattori-kun hadn't said how it all happened or why or who exactly were the culprits, but he'd quietly told Megure that Kudo had been more than just shot in the upper-right abdomen. Torture. A cruel form of which was the reason why Kudo was...

The inspector looked to Mouri Ran, who was sleeping fitfully with her head propped upon a silent, blood-covered Hattori Heiji who was also staring into his cold cup of coffee as if it had all the answers. The poor girl, the older man thought to himself as he watched the two, eyes softening sadly. It was one thing to have this sort of thing happen to Conan-kun--a horrible, heart-wrenching thing, still...but no where near this level, Megure knew.

Of course, everyone in the police force as well as anyone involved with the Mouris and Kudos knew all about the two of them and their childhood together. Everyone knew about the separation and, despite whatever excuses came up, how the two kids felt about each other.

It was worse than anything Mouri-kun had been through, Megure thought darkly to himself only to start in surprise when something moved out of the corner of his eye.

His cup of coffee fell onto the floor, splashing a dark color against the light-colored tile.

By chance, Megure was able to catch sight of the haunted look in Hattori-kun's eyes at the sight before he looked away to rouse Mouri-chan from her well-deserved rest. It was only then that Megure was able to figure out who had snuck up beside him.

He stood slowly, back and legs protesting against the posture he'd assumed for the majority of the night. He then turned to the doctor who'd just left the operating room--over 5 hours of surgery couldn't mean any good news, Megure knew from experience.

Once Hattori-kun and Mouri-chan were standing, the seemingly frail girl clutching the haggard and stressed boy, the doctor let out a breath. Then he gave a wane smile, sweat on his brow giving away his discomfiture. "He's stable," he finally said as if that was a victory in itself.

There was a loud sigh in the room--everyone had exhaled the breath they'd been holding. Mouri-chan was pressing her face into Hattori-kun's shoulder while the Kansai detective said soothing words in a low voice that was difficult to catch. Takagi sank back to his seat, hand clutching an actually empty coffee cup in relief.

Megure focused his attention on the doctor before him and asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "There were complications during surgery?"

The pitiful smile quickly fell off the man's face. His eyes filled with sympathy as he looked over to the younger duo of the group. "We almost lost him a couple of times," he said quietly in a manner that suggested it was taboo to even mention the thought of such a thing happening. "The bullet was easy enough to locate and remove, but the damage to the organs and the frailty of the tissues--"

"Frailty?" Megure asked, eyebrows furrowing in apparent confusion. Kudo-kun had always been such a healthy boy, so why would something like this become an issue on the operating table?

"It was like trying to sew together some kind of gelatine," the doctor explained, keeping his words as layman as possible. "Once we had one area repaired and began to focus on another, the stitches would tear right through the tissue as if it wasn't even there." He shook his head, holding up his hands in a bewildered manner. "None of us have seen anything like it. We've never heard of this sort of thing before, even if a condition like that should exist..."

"Condition?" Mouri-chan asked quietly from the back, making Megure turn to see her wide eyes as she stared at the doctor, fear the primary emotion now that the relief had been destroyed by such news. "S-Shinichi's...sick?"

Again, the doctor shook his head. "I can't explain any sort of virus or baccterial infection that would do this to a person. Perhaps a type of autoimmune disease, but if that's the case, it's not one of the readily-known diseases and--"

"Autoimmune?" Takagi asked from his position off to the side. "You mean a type of disease that has the body attack itself?"

"Essentially," the other man answered, using a napkin he held to wipe at his soaked brow. "But this kind of deterioration...we've never seen it before. Not in someone still alive."

A noise came from the back now, and Megure turned to see Hattori-kun with his eyes tightly shut and his jaw clenched. Mouri-chan looked to the dark-skinned boy with concern, but instead of responding in kind of her, the Kansai detective pried himself away from her and went to a nearby window to stare out at the city nightscape.

Not knowing what to say to the boy to bring him comfort, Megure turned back to the doctor. "So? You said Kudo-kun was stable?"

The doctor started, probably having thought that the attention had been taken off of him for the time being. "Ah, well," he stammered quickly before rushing to explain, "We were finally able to fix everything, finding points in the tissues of the organs and such that were more... solid than others. Thanks to Mouri-san, we were able to have enough blood to replace all that was lost during the procedure and his time since the shooting."

There was a slight moment of hesitation, but the man pressed onward, "For the time being...since we suspect that this might be an autoimmune disease--tests won't be back until sometime within the next couple of hours with results telling us if it is or not. So, while waiting for the tests results, we've put Ku--"

"Don't use his full name out in the open!" both Megure and Takagi shouted in alarm.

The doctor jerked back as if he'd been stricken. "R-right! I'm sorry, forgive me!" he quickly said before everyone calmed down again. Once he could breathe easier, the younger man continue, "A-as I said, while waiting for the results, we've put the patient in a clean room--to lower the risk of his catching airborne infections and the like that his body most likely can't handle at this point in time--"

"So you mean..." Mouri-chan began hesitantly, sadly, "we won't be able to see Shinichi yet?"

Now more uncomfortable than before, the doctor explained, "You'll be able to see him, of course, but...you won't be able to enter the clean room without authorization and without being thoroughly sterilized. We're trying to keep all possible unknown factors separate from him because it will just make it more difficult to discover what this disease really is if it turns out not to be any of the main three: viral, bacterial, or autoimmune."

"What you're tryin' ta say," Hattori-kun's voice came suddenly just as the doctor finished speaking. Back to them, the detective continued, "You're tryin' ta say that ya dunno what's wrong with him and that whatever it is, ya wanna keep it contained in case it's infectious."

"W-what?" the man asked, startled. "No! That isn't what I said at all--!"

Megure broke in then, "Doctor, Hattori-kun here is a famous high school detective from Osaka. If he sees some sort of underlying truth to what you're saying, I'm sorry to say, but I will be inclined to believe him. Please tell us the whole truth."

Suddenly deflating, the doctor shook his head weakly, a hand going to his head as he looked to the floor. "We've done all we could to fix the bleeding, but even if he's stable now, with this disease, whatever it is, eating at his tissues, making them dissolve or decay to the point where his organs can no longer function..."

He lifted his eyes to meet Megure's, sending a chill down the inspector's spine. "If this disease is infectious, it would be a pandemic. We have to keep him isolated while working on him, yes, but..." The doctor's face twisted into a pained look that effectively knocked the air from Megure's lung, knowing what was to come.

"Even if we figure out what it is," the doctor finally admitted solemnly, "it might be too late for him."

-

* * *

_Author's Notes:_ Okay, loltastic story behind this fic. I wrote it some time in '07. And then put it up at the LJ community ManyCases1Truth in Jan. '08. And am only just now getting around to posting it here. This is only the first part to the story here. I figure there will only be TWO parts. This one and the next one. Haven't really gotten around to playing with the fic since then, but eh. We'll see!

I am so far behind in updating my FF.N account with fics I've written. Drrdrrdrr.


End file.
